Checks are a widely used form of payment for both business and personal transactions. Although electronic payments have gained significant acceptance for business transactions, checks are still much more widely used for personal transactions. However, many checks require at least some manual processing, which increases the cost of using checks. Automated equipment to read the payer bank routing number and the payer account number has been in use for some time. Automated equipment to read other information from the checks, such as hand-written or even printed payee or amount is still unreliable in operation, requiring manual correction or entry of such information.
At the same time, the writing of checks has become increasingly automated. Businesses have used computer-generated checks for some time. Recently, financial software for personal computers has gained the capability to generate personal checks. The information printed on such computer generated checks cannot reliably be read by computer. Printed information on checks which could be reliably read by computer would allow complete automation of the check handling process and decrease the cost of such check handling.